Robert Ivory works on a puzzle at Friends Place. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s may nearly triple by 2050, barring the medical developments to prevent, slow or stop the disease.

(Rose Baca - neighborsgo staff photographer)

Executive director Marylynne Henry opened Friends Place’s third branch after her husband Rodney (seated) suffered a brain injury that impaired his memory and ability to reason.

(Rose Baca - neighborsgo staff photographer)

Rodney Henry sits in a recliner at Friends Place, an adult day center that specializes in caring for people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, in DeSoto. Marylynne Henry opened Friends Place’s third branch after her husband, Rodney Henry suffered a brain injury that impaired his memory and ability to reason.

(
Staff photo by Rose Baca
- neighborsgo staff photographer)

Michael Tillman (left) and Robert Shields play dominoes at Friends Place. The program has other locations north in McKinney and Richardson. The 7,400-square-foot building is large enough to accommodate 50 to 60 members.

It’s been about seven years since her husband’s brain injury. A surgery momentarily stopped his heart and cut oxygen to his brain. He was revived, but his memory and ability to reason were impaired.

Henry, now 58, struggled to care for her husband, Rodney, now 62, and balance a career in information technology in Richardson. About two years ago, she left her job to open Friends Place’s third branch on West Belt Line Road in DeSoto in a former daycare center.

The adult day center specializes in caring for people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Henry said it’s the only one of its kind in the Best Southwest area.

“With having to be a caretaker for him and drive to Richardson, the IT field just didn’t seem as important anymore,” Marylynne Henry said. “I always thought about owning my own business. I never thought it would be this.”

The program has other locations north in McKinney and Richardson — the original center that Rodney Henry initially attended.

Pam Kovacs, a health care professional with an expertise in Alzheimer’s, founded the program in Richardson in 2005. For years, Marylynne Henry dropped her husband off on her way to work. For $72 per day, it was the half what she paid a caretaker and included interactive activities like games and crafts.

After another couple expanded the program to McKinney, Marylynne Henry lobbied to extend the program’s reach south.

She poured her own savings into funding the program and Bank of DeSoto agreed to finance the 7,400-square-foot building and remodeling of the space. The space is large enough to accommodate 50 to 60 members.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease this year is about 5.2 million. That number is expected to escalate as the baby boomer generation ages. The association estimates the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s may nearly triple by 2050, barring the medical developments to prevent, slow or stop the disease.

Marylynne Henry predicts that there will be a growing need for centers like hers that assist people in less advanced stages of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

“I want people to know there’s is another option. It’s not just [to] put them in a nursing home. There is another option that’s in the middle and can work for a lot of people,” she said.

Now, her husband accompanies her every day to the center. Her staff has grown to eight, including a registered nurse, and 44 members are enrolled in the program.

Once a month, the center brings in outside entertainment, such as an eight-piece Dixieland band that performed on a recent Monday in the dining room. Marylynne Henry aims to raise enough money to expand this to twice per month.

“We’re like a senior center, but with a lot of activities and supervision. Where else can you go hear a Dixieland band play?” she said.

Stephanie Reiter, 66, of Dallas has brought her 90-year-old mother, Freda Tacquard, to the center since February. Her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in October.

Tacquard, who moves with a walker, still lives alone at her home in Hutchins, but Reiter cooks her dinner every night and hired a nighttime caregiver.

“I’m still going,” said Tacquard, who raised her fist and pumped it in the air as she walked through the center’s doors on a recent morning.

Initially, Tacquard visited the center three days a week — now she visits four days. While there, she plays bingo, bakes cakes and participates in interactive memory exercises. It’s a chance for her to share stories of growing up as the daughter of a sharecropper in East Texas during the Great Depression and others about her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. On Fridays, Tacquard visits her 90-year-old husband at the Desoto Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

“When she is interactive and has the structure that’s here, she’s much happier when she’s at home,” Reiter said. “She’s much more positive now.”

Reiter said her mom’s five-hour visits at the center also give her a break and time to run errands.

“I’m on my way to do exercise and shopping, whatever things I have to do to run two households and take care of two 90-year-olds,” said Reiter, whose sisters live in Conroe and South Carolina. “This is my time. This is my respite care.”